Berkshire Hathaway

Berkshire Hathaway is Warren Buffett's company. Berkshire Hathaway owns a wide range of subsidiary companies, including Fruit of the Loom (T-shirt and underwear manufacturer), Geico automobile insurance, See's Candies, Johns Mansville and The Pampered Chef.

In 1995, when the Wall Street Journal exposed how certain corporations were starting to investigate journalists' private lives and rank them on how favorably they write about companies, Charles Munger, Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway said, "Berkshire Hathaway hates the whole idea with a passion...Our attitude is that if you deserve good press, then in the long run, you'll get good press." Corporations named in the article as engaging in the practice included Microsoft, Philip Morris and MacDonald's.

Directors (2007)

 * Warren Buffett - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
 * Charles Munger - Vice Chairman, Chairman of Wesco Financial Corporation and Chief Executive Officer of Wesco Financial Corporation
 * Donald Keough - Allen & Company, Inc.
 * Thomas Murphy - ABC, Inc.
 * Howard Buffett - BioImages
 * Ronald Olson - Munger, Tolles & Olson
 * Walter Scott, Jr. - Communications Inc.
 * Charlotte Guyman - Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
 * David Gottesman - First Manhattan Co.
 * William Gates III - Microsoft Corporation
 * Susan Decker - Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

Directors (1999)

 * Susan T. Buffett
 * Howard G. Buffett
 * Malcolm G. Chace
 * Ronald L. Olson
 * Walter Scott, Jr.
 * Warren E. Buffett, Chairman And Ceo
 * Charles T. Munger, Vice Chairman
 * Marc D. Hamburg, Vice President, Treasurer
 * Daniel J. Jaksich, Controller
 * Forrest N. Krutter, Secretary

Berkshire Hathaway and tobacco
Documents indicate that Philip Morris looked to Berkshire Hathaway as a model for ways to improve its corporate image with stockholders and the public. A pamphlet titled "Protecting and Enhancing Your Company's Reputation" (estimated date 2001) was found in the files of Elizabeth Culley, of Philip Morris Corporate Affairs Department, circa 2001. . A 1992 memo from Nicholas Rolli of PM's financial department shows PM modeled its shareholder letters after Berkshire Hathaway's model,  also considering those of General Electric, Sara Lee and Campbell.

Existing coal-fired power plants
As shown in this map, through its MidAmerican Energy subsidiary Berkshire Hathaway operated 11 coal plants in 2005 with 29 generating units and a total of 10,282 MW of capacity. Among chief executive officers of companies owning coal-fired generating capacity, Warren Buffett ranked sixth after the the CEOs of American Electric Power, Southern Company, Duke Energy, Tennessee Valley Authority, and Ameren.

 41.74, -108.785, Jim Bridger Steam Plant Click here for more information. 42.326658, -96.379203, George Neal Station North Click here for more information. 39.1667, -111.0261, Hunter Power Plan Click here for more information. 39.378222, -111.079722, Huntington Power Plant Click here for more information. 41.185592, -95.842112, Council Bluffs Energy Center Click here for more information. 42.839239, -105.777984, Dave Johnston Power Plant Click here for more information. 41.48381, -90.82007, Louisa Generating Station Click here for more information. 41.757232, -110.597654, Naughton Power Plant Click here for more information. 44.288754, -105.384951, Wyodak Power Plant Click here for more information. 39.727222, -110.863333, Carbon Power Plant Click here for more information. 41.54075, -90.451074, Riverside Generating Station (Iowa) Click here for more information.

Here is a list of MidAmerican's coal power plants:

In 2006, MidAmerican's 11 coal-fired power plants emitted 69.0 million tons of CO2 (1.15% of all U.S. CO2 emissions) and 177,000 tons of SO2 (1.18% of all U.S. SO2 emissions).

Council Bluffs Energy Center Unit 4 is an operational coal plant near Council Bluffs, Iowa and the Missouri River that began operating in 2007. Berkshire Hathaway is the owner of MidAmerican Energy, which owns PacifiCorp. The two companies own 29 coal plants totalling 10,281 megawatts of capacity, making Berkshire Hathaway the sixth largest owner of coal capacity in the United States.

Plant cancellations
In 2007, PacifiCorp, a subsidiary of his MidAmerican Energy, cancelled six proposed coal-fired power plants. These included Utah's Intermountain Power Project Unit 3, Jim Bridger Unit 5, and four proposed plants previously included in PacifiCorp's Integrated Resource Plan. The cancellations came in the wake of pressure from regulators and citizen groups, including a petition drive organized by Salt Lake City commercial real estate broker Alexander Lofft and directed at Buffett personally. The 1,600 petitioners, who described themselves in a letter to Buffett as "a collection of citizens, business owners and managers, service professionals, public servants, and organization representatives ... your friends and new customers here in Utah," explained that, in their view, any further expansion of coal generation in Utah would "compromise our health, obscure our viewsheds, shrink and contaminate our watersheds, and thin out our most beloved snowpack," concluding that "our attractiveness as a place to live and work is also threatened, and so is our economic competitiveness as a major metro area and a state, compromising our recent gains in income and property values."

Contact

 * Web: http://www.berkshirehathaway.com

Related Sourcewatch articles

 * Key private sector decision makers on coal
 * Gregory E. Abel
 * Thomas Sokol
 * Marmon Group

Other resources

 * "The Education of Warren Buffett: Why did the guru cancel six coal plants?" Ted Nace, Gristmill, April 15, 2008